Working as a Community Interpreter is not what it seems. There is more prestige associated with Conference Interpreting which requires more qualifications, more agility with speed of processing accurate linguistic information and well structured sentences. But as you watch the video below, you will wonder if Conference Interpreting would not be more straight forward and an attractive option after all.
With Community Interpreting, you cannot just be good at interpreting Languages, you need to be able to interpret Culture, you need to build a rapport with All persons involved in order to understand as much as possible their reference system, while keeping impartiality.
It may seem obvious that as a professional interpreter, one should remain impartial at all times, but in reality, it is a very difficult thing to achieve.
More than often, you are called as an interpreter for very sensitive cases (the government does not like to waste their money on such things) - like woman giving birth (and afraid she may forget her second language during the ordeal), doctor's appointments, attempted murder, child custody, refugees family conflict resolution with children involved, schizophrenic clients involved in crime, recorded trials, as I have.
You dwell in the depth of what is part of our humanity. Your client will often see you as an ally, not so much because you speak the same language as it is suggested in the below movie, but because they think 'someone understands' and they are desperate for 'someone to understand' (my experience).
I spend a lot of time saying "please beware that I will translate everything you are telling me", I am ONLY a "tool", I am using that precise word so that they can objectify my presence, dehumanise me (yes, I have to do that, and yes, it is painful). I make the analogy of a tube transmitting information from Them to the Other person. I make sure my two clients face each other, and I am physically in between, and I make sure they should look at each other in the eyes
(the most powerful medium of communication).
This is how impartiality can be achieved.
Why should I do that?
From the time I start taking side, my presence is no longer required. I then may become a specialist (psychologist, lawyer, doctor) that I am NOT. It is not about me, it is about other people's voices, whatever this voice is about, and I shall not be the judge of that. I am only defending her/his freedom of expression and a right to a fair trial.
When I am asked by a psychologist that may be present in an audience alongside a prison warden 'what do I think' (of a client), I HAVE TO SAY 'Sorry, this is beyond my competency' even if I think I know more. When I think that other questions should be asked, I have to shut up. When a person tells me what she would not even dare telling her mother, I have to warn 'Please I have to translate everything'.
What if it is the only way you can help your client?
It is.
I noticed in this movie that the community interpreters voices were in all cases very soft, like soothing, and I could relate to doing the same thing. I believe it helps a lot, it helps 'relax the mind and conduct information better' (no interfering noise of ANY kind).
Here is a video of Community Interpreting that my translator and interpreter colleagues may find interesting.
This video has been created as one of 6 films in 6 European cities in order for interpreters and police officers to improve best practices in France, Scoltland, Italy, Tcheck Republic, Germany and Belgium under UNITI (University Network of Interpreter Training Institutes) in a collaborative and comparative project.
This is what I do from time to time, when I am called. I cannot say that I 'like to be called' for such jobs, but it is the most difficult kind of work I have ever done, and well worth the trouble.
After such jobs, I feel exhausted intellectually and emotionally, but I know I have genuinely helped a human like me. I give a voice to a voiceless.
